Welcome to the KOBAKANT DIY Wearable Technology Documentation

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Wednesday February 4th 2015, 4pm at the University in Antananarivo, Madagascar Together with Brian Fisher, a visit and short talk at the Ecole Polytechnique Vontovorona to meet the engineering students. Very brief introduction to the ant research happening at the Madagascar Biodiversity Center and some examples of electronic textile materials. We explained how both building […]

This example titled “Greeting Hat” shows how a record and playback module intended for greetings cards is made sewable and the various components are integrated into a red hat. When the round purple record button is pressed the module records up to 10 seconds of audio through the microphone. And when the hat is tiled […]

Using a Silhouette Cameo Plotter to cut a flexible circuitboard from various materials. The circuit base material is Kapton, a material that can withstand the high heat of soldering. The conductive circuit traces are cut from a sheet of copper tape and transferred manually onto the Kapton base. Finally a soldermask is cut from very […]

Saturday October 11th 2014, 9:30-17:00 as part of the Wear It Festival in Berlin, Germany In this workshop we will build our own segment displays and attach them to our bodies, turning ourselves into platforms for personal signage. What text would you like to display on yourself?

October 6th & 7th 2014, 10-17:00 as part of the SOFT Symposium on Fashion Technology at The Royal Academy of Art in The Hague Bodies as Instruments: Masterclass and Symposium at KABK Workshop Leaders: Marije Baalman, Mika Satomi & Hannah Perner-Wilson (KOBAKANT) In this two-day workshop participants will explore the human body as a platform […]

11-21 September 2014, as part of the Schmiede festival in Hallein near Salzburg, Austria The aim of this 10-day joint project is to bring together e-textile practitioners with performing artists to build interactive wearables and textiles that can be performed in a live context. The project will take place as part of the Schmiede festival […]

Currently I am making costumes for the music duo “Jenny’s Playlist”. Their wish was to have costume that lights up as they perform. Yes, it is a blinky LED costume! After a long meeting with them to decide what kind of aesthetic it should be, and how it should be light up, we decided to […]

This example of shape memory alloy (SMA) used to actuate fabric into a smocking pattern was made during the SMA meets Smocking Workshop held by Aniela Hoitink and Isabel Cabral at the 2014 E-Textile Summercamp.

This simple motor uses a diode for it’s axis, enameled wire wrapped into a small coil for the electromagnet and Turkish needle lace (Igne Oyasi) for both structure and support. The diode provides an electrically separated axis, around which the coil can both spin and receive it’s power. The electrical properties of the diode mean […]

Inspired by the availability of Zebra fabric and the fact that Eeonyx can coat a variety of materials in their secret resistive/piezoresistive formula, this post is about an idea for a fabric, that will hopefully “come true”.

Inspired by the paper solution of folding the corner of a sheet of paper and using a binder clip to hold a coin-cell battery in place, this solution is inspired by Melissa Coleman’s suggestion that a clothspin would be more suitable to fabric…

A very basic motor (single electromagnet coil) strung on a string. Pulling the string taught creates the axis for the motor. Contacts from either end of the electromagnet coil terminate in exposed metal rings that surround the interrupted conductive thread that is both axis for rotation and electrical contact. Connected to a 9V battery and […]

Leather coated Adjon with Eeonyx’s secret conductive polymer formula, not only makes the leather conductive but also gives it piezoresistive (pressure and stretch sensitive) properties similar to other EeonTex fabrics and velostat.

The eTextiles Summer Camp (eTextile-summercamp.org) is a week-long event that brings together expert practitioners of eTextiles and Soft Circuitry in one place to share their knowledge and skills through hands-on workshops, and facilitate discussions around their practices. We are looking for makers, designers, engineers and artists, who work in the field of eTextiles and soft […]

This post summarizes various conductive fabrics and narrow-fabrics that have separated areas of conductivity. This can be a useful property to have when looking to make multi-wire connections or matrices.

Sewn from pieces of non-conductive stretch jersey and Eeontex piezoresistive knit stretch fabric. The fabric of this ball with a balloon inside stretches when the balloon is inflated and the Eeontex fabric becomes less conductive the more it is stretched. Two contacts sewn with conductive thread on either side of one of the Eeontex segments […]

May 15, 16 2014 at F-A-S-T in Dresden, Germany In this two-day workshop participants will build and perform Chip-Man-Band Costumes – combining wearable electronics with chiptune music and the idea of one-man-band instruments!

5-9 May 2014, taught by David Gauthier, David Mellis and Hannah Perner-Wilson at the Copenhagen Institute for Interaction Design in Copenhagen, Denmark In this introductory course, electronics are presented as materials. How might we imagine and build electronics differently, if instead of thinking about electronics in terms of discrete components, we learn to control the […]

Two danish 1 Krone coins strung on conductive thread. When the coins meet the electrical contact between the threads is bridged, thus closing the “switch”. There are so many different kinds of materials in the world! Conductive, resistive, pizeoresistive, semi-conductive, non-conductive. We use them every day, in all kinds of different ways. Why not use […]

DressCode is a sound reactive circuit based on PIC, developed by Seb Madgwick, Vincent Akkermans, Sophie McDonald and KOBAKANT. It has 3 output pins that gets activated as the environmental sound changes. It has auto gain feature so it adjust to the general sound amount of the environment. (for example, if you go to a […]

Inspired by this Instructable (http://www.instructables.com/id/LilyPad-Wrist-Band-POV/), I have tried to make a POV (Persistence Of Vision) with ATTINY, so it can be cheap and tiny. Materials used: – 8 SMD LED – ATTINY45 – 8 pin socket (not necessary) – KarlGrimm conductive thread – Lipo battery My idea is to use ATTINY45 (or 85) instead of […]

Solder masks are layers of mataerial applied to circuitboards before soldering. The protect the conductive traces against oxidization and shorting out, but also help control the flow of solder when soldering the parts to the board. Solder masks are commonly silk-screened on to the etched circuit as a thin layer of coloured epoxy. Solder masks […]

The LilyBLE was designed by Katharina Bredies as combines the a sewable arduino platform for programming microcontrollers with the new Bluetooth standard 4.0 Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). In addition to the LilyBLE module there is also a visual programming environment for the iPad that allows you to connect various sensors and actuators to the i/o […]

The Interactive Knit Book demonstrates examples of knited electronic elements such as switches, sensors, speakers, and heaters that cause colour change. This book was compiled as the result of the EIT ICT Connected Textiles research done at the Design Research Lab at the UdK Berlin.

Saturday December 7th, 12-19:00 at FabLab Berlin DressCode celebrates fancy dress in a modern style extravaganza. Rather than shun the ever growing presence of blinking LEDs, we encourage everybody to partake in the illuminated future by making their own blinking sound-reactive attire! DressCode is about making, meeting, partying and becoming part of something big and […]

I have printed a xbee shield for lilypad, so you can snap Xbee onto a Lilypad using the FTDI pins (the 6pin headers on Lilypad) without disturbing the on/off switch or the Lipo connector. The PCB is designed with Fritzing. Here is the fritzing file on github >> https://github.com/mikst/code/blob/master/Xbee/XbeePCB.fzz Here is a bit of image […]

Saturday November 16 2013, 14-18:00 at interfiction in Kassel, Germany Upset with how boring the last surprise inside your Kinder Egg turned out to be? You’re not alone! Under the festival theme “ANALOGITAL” we’ll be running the Kinder Egg WishLab to take a look at what kinds of cool new surprises can be dreamed up […]

Want to build a full-body motion-capture system, but lazy to sew a human-size suit? This tutorial shows how to make a motion-capture costume for action figures. Flexpoint bend sensors are placed on the joints to capture their movement and position. An x-OSC is used to capture the analog sensor data and send it via WiFi […]

Thursday October 17th 18:30-21:30, FabLab Berlin This post is from card weaving workshop by Kati and Ramyah (eCraft Collective) at the Physical Computing Meeting at Fablab Berlin. Also see card and band weaving techniques >> http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=4476 During the Physical Computing Workshop, KATI HYYPPÄ and RAMYAH GOWRISHANKAR from eCrafts Collective has gave a card weaving workshop. […]

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could simply press-fit your lilypad arduino to your fabric circuit traces! That you could sew your circuit with the sewing machine using conductive thread and not have to do all the hard-soft connections by hand! Here some experiments in making a 3D printed LilyPad SnapRing that connects in this […]

Attempts to 3D print a variety of sensors from conductive ABS material in collaboration with FabLab Berlin. Interestingly the resistance of the material decreases when bent, implying that the electrical connections are being broken in the material because it is being stretched or damaged. When pressured the resistance through the material decreases.

Relief embroidery on leather is traditionally used in Austria to create decorative patterns on the surface of the leather used in Lederhosen. The embroidery thread does not pass through the material, instead it is stitched back and forth, pulling together the leather and creating a “bump” (germ. “wulst”). This bump also serves a purpose of […]

Sew your own pair of Data Gloves, each with 8 bend sensors for finger gesture tracking and recognistion, an ArduIMU for measuring orientation and acceleration, an RGB LED for visual feedback, and a vibration motor for haptic feedback. You’ll find the patterns, materials&parts lists and full instructions for making a pair of DIY Data Gloves […]

This post compiles a list of projects for e-textile designs and sensors that make use of the Eeontex range of coated conductive fabrics produced by Eeonyx. Eeontex fabrics are fabrics coated/doped with an inherently conductive polymer, making them conductive with quite a high resistance. But the resistance changes of distance, pressure through the material, and […]

Monday September 23rd 2013, 16-18:00 in the TinkerLab at the Schmiede festival in Hallein bei Salzburg/Austria Have you ever wondered what kinds of electronics we would be using if we had crafted them ourselves? What kind of interface would you have built to interact with your music? What would your alarm clock look like? How […]

A series of balls knit on double-bed flat-bed knitting machine that incorproate conductive and resistive yarns to allow them to be stretch, pressure, scrunch and touch sensitive. Using lilypad Arduinos with FTDI and USB cables as well as ATtinys with Bluetooth to send sensor data to computer for visualization and sound feedback.

A series of lasercut felt designs that can host customized version of DressCode motion or sound circuits. DressCode circuits come in two variants: (1) A simple motion version that uses beaded tilt sensor to trigger LED lights to turn on and off with movement of a metal bead over patches embroidered with conductive thread. (2) […]

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is the new Bluetooth 4.0 standard (not backwards compatible!) being used by many new devices such as the iPhone and iPad. BlueGiga’s BLE module allows you to make your own device talk to other BLE devices. To make it even easier to use the BlueGiga module there exist a BLE Breakout […]

Friday 23 August, 11am – 5pm, Shambala Festival, Market Harborough, Leicestershire In this workshop participants will sew LED lights into their clothing, making interactive costumes that react with flashing lights and light sequences to the beat of the music. Using conductive thread to sew electrical connections into the fabric of masks, t-shirts, gloves, leggings and […]

For projects with few i/o pins, using an ATtiny is a great alternative to arduino boards. Using software serial allows you to send and receive data over the serial port via an FTDI board, and connecting to one of Sparkfun’s Bluetooth mate boards makes for a pretty streightforward wireless option. (You could also connect it […]

Here is a step by step, how to assemble a jumpsuit for action man figure dolls. This tutorial is to make a costume for a doll, but of course if you make a bigger size of it, it can be for human as well. This pattern was made for the Action Hero Tailoring workshop at […]

Friday August 2nd 2013, Tech Open Air Festival, Factory Summer Fair in Berlin, Germany Join us for some Action Hero Hacking and Tailoring with the FabLab Berlin at the Factory Summer Fair. After scanning and 3D printing a replica of your head to place upon the action hero body of your choice, we will help […]

Ikat is a technique of partially dying yarns before weaving them to create a patterned fabric. A resist is applied to the yarn before the yarn is submerged in dye. This post describes a process of etching (rather than dying) conductive thread selectively, leaving some parts conductive and others non-conductive. The resulting “striped” thread is […]

A heavy metal bead strung on conductive thread and surrounded by conductive fabric petals, makes for a simple six way digital tilt switch. When the metal bead makes contact with one of the petals it completes the circuit to an LED light, causing it to light up. This very simple technique for detecting direction of […]

Lasercut from stretch conductive lycra, this coin-cell battery pocket makes for a super simple fabric power supply connection. A plus symbol lasercut into the center of the pouch indicates which way around the battery should be inserted.

14, 15, 16 June 2013, part of the Making Lab at APAP in Anyang, Seoul/South Korea We will be setting up a temporary Wish Laboratory for Handmade Technologies as part of the Making Lab: APAP2013 project in Anyang, South Korea. If you would like to join us for three days of making people’s electronic wishes […]

You can design, print and etch your own PCBs from a flexible sheet of Kapton coated with a thin layer of copper. To do this yourself you need some special materials and equipment, and if you are not planning on etching circuits more regularly then it can be nice to start by looking for a […]

Saturday May 25th 11-18:00, Open Tech School workshop at Coop Berlin This workshop is more of a tutoring session for up to 3 participants per tutor and aims to be a super quick and basic introduction to programming an arduino lilypad, as well as personalized help building specific projects or getting started.

This project uses the Openwear open design for gLove Mono by Zoe Romano and integrates a felt & velostat bend sensor on the middle finger. A lilypad arduino is programmed to read the analog sensor value of the fabric bend sensor, and trigger 1, 2 or 3 LED lights to light up depending on how […]

The eTextiles Summer Camp 2013 Call for eTextiles Practitioners! The eTextiles Summer Camp (eTextile-summercamp.org) is a five day event that brings together expert practitioners of eTextiles and Soft Circuitry in one place to share their knowledge and skills through hands-on workshops, and facilitate discussions around their practices. We are looking for makers, designers, engineers and […]

Every first Tuesday of the month, from 7pm onwards, at the Fablab-Berlin A monthly get-together for sharing, making and debugging all things eTextile related! Link >> http://www.fablab-berlin.org/de/e-textile-knitting-circle/ Flickr set >> http://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/sets/72157633453846218/

Conductive yarns are often in gray color which makes your project looks grayish. What if we color them in different colors so we can explore the aesthetic expression more freely, or match the conductive yarn color with the rest of the yarn to hide it completely? I have made a trial to dye the conductive […]

EL panel and inverters are interesting material, but rather hard to control since it involves inverters with AC current. There are some nice tutorials on how to control AC side with triac or EL sequencer at sparkfun, buildr.. so on. But I always had a bit of problem when I want to fade them slowly, […]

Saturday 13 April 2013, 1-6pm, Betahaus, Berlin Friday 26 April 2013, 11:30am-4pm, Betahaus, Berlin as part of the General Assembly Artisan Weekend This workshops combines textile crafts, new materials and electronics to build interactive fabrics. Participants will be introduced to a range of conductive fabrics and threads as well as a selection of electronic components […]

This example uses an ATtiny microcontroller (programmed using arduino!) to playback a melody every time a head is laid on the pillow. The speaker is embroidered with conductive directly onto the surface of the pillow. A magnet is mounted directly behind the coil, inside the pillow is a knit pressure sensor that detects when a […]

This little circuit sits nicely ontop of an arduino board and lets you quickly plug in an ATtiny chip for programming using the Arduino “language” and IDE to write the code, and the Arduino board as an ISP programmer to upload the code to the tiny chip.

Sunday 24 February 2013, 1-6pm, Betahaus Maker Weekend in Berlin, Germany This workshop is a good introduction to making soft circuits and writing some basic arduino code. Instead of learning how to program an Arduino, participants will learn to use an Arduino to program an ATtiny microcontroller, the difference being that the ATtiny microcontroller is […]

An embroidered fabric speaker made into a pillow. Inside the pillow an amplification module hacked from a commercial device lets you easily connect your mp3 player to play back your favorite music. While the speaker might not be as loud as commercial speakers, you can very comfortably lay your head down on it to rest.

You can make a simpler heat controlling circuit using TIP122 transistor. The above image is the schematic. If you want to control a lot of heat lines, you can use shift register between arduino and input pin of TIP122. This method is not good if you turn on/off the heat in high frequency. TIP122 will […]

This circuit uses the ATtiny 8-pin microcontroller which has 5 I/O pins to create a 7-segment display. Since a 7-segment display only requires control of 7 individual LEDs, we use 4 of the ATtiny I/O pins as charlieplexed outputs (n*(n-1)). Leaving the the fifth I/O pin to be used as digital or analog input or […]

This post covers a few different (very basic) techniques for amplifying various sound sources. On the one hand sound coming from circuits inside toys that make sound (toy piano, singing greeting cards, recording and playback modules…), as well as sound made by generating frequencies using a microcontroller such as the ATtiny or an arduino board. […]

November 23, 24 2012, at the V2 Sweatshop event in Rotterdam/The Netherlands Designing for the loop is a two-day workshop that focuses on eco-conscious eTextile design, developed by artists Mika Satomi and Hannah Perner-Wilson in collaboration with sustainability expert Andreas Köhler. Participants debate issues of sustainability in eTextile design on the basis of several hands-on […]

16, 17, 18 November 2012, Atelier Nord, Oslo/Norway Link >> http://ateliernord.no/en/workshop-soft-tiny-quiet-arduino-workshop/ Sign up >> http://ateliernord.no/pamelding-soft-tiny-quiet-arduino-workshop/ What are we missing? That we can’t buy in the store or online, that nobody has ever thought of because they don’t know our unique habits, strange abilities or eccentric desires?

Commercially available conductive fabrics are mostly evenly coated basic woven and knit structures. There is nothing fancy, distinct or particularity interesting about their aesthetic appeal. They are metallic, shiny and uniform. What if you could weave your own conductive fabrics. For one you could tailor the electrical properties of the fabric to your own designs, […]

September 28th 2012 This workshop will be held as part of Catarina Mota’s Tech Crafts class at ITP in New York. Participants will embroider fabric speakers based on the following kit: >> http://www.etsy.com/listing/110290369/embroidered-speaker-kit

Inspired by Marcelo Coehlo’s paper speaker and Vincent Leclerc’s Accouphene textile speaker, these paper and fabric speakers are made by running 5-9V sound amplified signal through a very conductive coil in close proximity to a magnet. Unlike most speakers that have the wire coil wrapped cylindrically and placed around the magnet, here the coil is […]

Chris Palmer demonstrated how to pleat fabric using a technique of pre-stitching it together with thread. More about his work and technique, and the patterns for the folds are all documented in his book Shadow Folds.